Second Chance
by sherlock1921
Summary: Another birthday rolls around


**Second Chance.**

**Having real trouble with my other two stories so I wrote this to amuse and divert myself more than anything. Just a one-shot. Is that what there called?**

"That's a lot of cards Daddy. You and Mummy must know lots of people."

Ex Head of Section MI5 Harry Pearce looked at the array of birthday cards dotted around the sitting room and couldn't bring himself to disagree with his daughter. Another birthday. They seemed to come around so quickly these days.

"It would appear so."

He picked up one or two at random and read the salutations inside.

"Are any from the bad people you put in prison?"

His youngest children all believed that he and their mother had been in the police force. They had seen the state of his body with its scars and bullet wounds, it had been easier to explain them away by this small deception. Plenty of time when they were older to put the record straight.

Stood facing the mirror above the fireplace. Pearce was perfectly placed to see the expression of surprise on his face. He replaced the card with care amongst its companions and turned to face Rose.

"No sweetheart, I'm quite sure that none are from the people I helped to put in prison."

At seven years of age, the world was still quite simple for Rose. Pearce would be sad to see that innocence go, as one day it must.

"Why not? They were naughty and so they got sent to prison, so they must be glad that you stopped them being naughty."

His lips twitched as he regarded the serious blue eyes looking back at him.

"Doesn't always work like that my love."

Rose inhaled for her next question, but Pearce fielded her with the ease of long years of practice.

"Is that someone calling from the the kitchen?"

Rose's face lit up.

Mummy's making a cake. She's making little ones too. She said that I could help with the icing. Oh! It's meant to be a secret, don't say I told you. Please..."

Rose had been a _happy accident _and despite himself he found that she had claimed a special place in his heart. He loved all his children but Rose...

And now she looked at him with pleading eyes, eyes so like her mothers that at that moment in time he would have forgiven her anything.

"Our little secret Rose. You better run along though. Can't keep the icing waiting."

The door was already banging on its hinges; he was talking to thin air. He turned back to his cards.

"_Youth is wasted on the young."_

"Talking to yourself again Dad? That's a bad sign."

Perace looked up and saw his and Ruth's eldest daughter had entered the room.

"I'm not quite ready for the funny farm yet, Joanna. I was talking to Rose."

Joanna looked around the room with exaggerated care.

" Has Danny perfected his invisibility cloak after all?" You do seem to be quite alone."

Pearce pulled a face, but it was lost on Joanne, who at eleven thought she was far too old for silliness.

"No, your mother has baked cakes. Rose is helping with icing. Daniel is polishing his shoes. Your twin is more assiduous in his duties than some I could mention. And oh by the way I'm not supposed to know about the cakes."

"Fraternal, not identical: chalk and cheese."

"Are you the chalk or the cheese?"

"Are, that's the big question isn't it?"

Pearce looked at his daughter with careful eyes. Hazel eyes so like his own looked back at him briefly before dropping to the cushion piping that she was suddenly fiddling with.

"What can this old man who knows nothing help you with hmm?"

For a long moment Pearce thought his daughter would remain silent. He watched her colour come and go until it settled on a delicate pink. Obviously what ever was bothering her was more important than her embarrassment.

_Oh grief, not "that" talk already._

"Dad. If I ask you a question, would you not go all policeman on me?"

_Please talk to your mother about this._

"I'll do my best, but perhaps your mother...?"

Joanna shook her head.

"No. I need a man's opinion."

_Oh God, here we go. Where is Ruth?_

"Right"

"I was going to ask Daniel, but he's not a man yet and probably won't be for ages, and besides, he's my brother..."

Joanna squirmed but soldiered on.

"...Do you think...possibly, that I'm ..sort of..nice...to look at? I mean, am I okay-ish. Not to bad, you know?"

Pearce managed to relax slightly. He smiled gently so that his daughter would not think that he was laughing at her.

"Answering as a man, I would say that you are a lovely young lady, who shows the promise of being a stunning young woman, who will require the service of both her brothers and father to keep all the young men from our door."

Joanna managed a small uncertain smile."

"That's a yes, then?"

"Yes you are pretty. You have lovely hair, beautiful eyes, clear skin-"

"Freckles."

Ah.

"Those too, I like them. Your mother once told me that when she was a girl her mother told her that they were baby beauty marks that God hadn't finished colouring in before he dropped her into her cradle."

Joanna was quite diverted for a moment.

"Really? So, Mum didn't like them either?"

Pearce too, had been momentarily diverted, remembering the situation he had been in at the time the freckle conversation had taken place. He forced his attention back to Joanna.

"No. I assume not".

"She seems okay about them now. But does that mean that I have to wait until I'm really old like mum before I'm okay about them?"

Peace was debating whether or not to feel insulted. If forty eight was considered "_really old" _then what did it make him?"

_Ancient_

Joanna jumped down and headed to the door to the kitchen whilst her father viewed himself in the mirror again, feeling everyone of his sixty five years, as he muttered under his breath

"...while I stay here and think about the fact that most of your friends' grandfathers are my age."

Joanna stopped, hesitant, her keen hearing having caught the gist of her father's comment.

"Yes, some of them are, but they're all slow,overweight and bal-..."

She managed to stop herself after a glance at her father's head.

"...um not like you at all. Y'know . You're active and still slim-ish and you're around for the fun stuff, not just the telling off, unlike other dads that are out at work. In fact come to think of it you are very nearly perfect."

Pearce didn't know if he should laugh or cry, but he took his daughter's comment in the spirit it was intended and felt overwhelmed with love for his family and the second chance he had been given.

"Thank you I appreciate that. I'm glad that I'm here for the fun stuff too."

Joanna smiled, suddenly looking a lot like her mother

"I love you Daddy."

She vanished after her sister and the room was quiet again. Pearce turned away from the cards, feeling better than he did a few moments ago, and found that he was no loner alone. His wife of twelve years regarded him with fond amusement from the doorway to the hall.

"Penny for them?"

He indicated the cards.

"Feeling my age."What on earth do you see in me Ruth? "

His wife sighed theatrically, shaking her head.

"I see a man I respect, adore , cherish and love beyond anything else. The father of my children, the keeper of my heart. We have this conversation every year Harry. As I have said before, you should enjoy the _now ;_in ten years time you'll look back and say, Gosh I was only sixty five, look how much younger I was then than I am now."

Pearce allowed a wry smile to escape.

"You're right of course."

Ruth crossed to her husband going into his arms.

"Happy Birthday, my darling."

She kissed him and he was happily lost in the moment.

Daniel passed the open doorway, carrying his polished shoes. He stopped dead.

"Oh gross. Mum and Dad are snogging again!"

Rose's voice came from the kitchen.

"What's snogging?"


End file.
